News

Hedge funds boost Spain

SPAIN has been handed a temporary reprieve from the threat of a European bailout after American hedge funds started buying the country’s bonds.

Foreign investors have started to creep back into Spanish bonds, taking an estimated 25% of the debt issued in September.

According to debt traders, the buying was led by Wall Street hedge funds that were encouraged by the commitment of Mario Draghi, governor of the European Central Bank (ECB), to do “whatever it takes” to save the euro.

Spain was able to raise almost twice as much debt in September as it has done in every other month of the year.

News of the bond buying comes ahead of a meeting of European finance ministers on Tuesday to discuss the creation of a banking union across the 17 countries that are members of the euro.